Jessie_11_I

On page 242 Simmons asks why people don't tell more stories. I think that a lot of the time people just don't consider stories a valid tool for whatever it is they're trying to do. If I'm trying to sell someone on an idea I don't walk into their office and launch into a big pre-planned story. I walk into their office and try to spit as much information out as I can before they start in on the "Do you even know what an appointment/office hours are?" spiel. If I overdraw my checking account (actually, that should be when, not if) I don't go to my fiance with some big sob story about really needing whatever it was I bought that pushed me into the red. I just go tell him I overdrew my account and he gives me money. Most things in life that I need, I can get just by asking for them. Maybe I'm just lucky like that. The sad fact of the matter is that unless you are in an environment that is actively judging your stories you probably won't take the time out of your day to tell them when cutting to the chase will get the same outcome.

There are, however, some things in life that are best served by telling stories. Getting to know someone over a cup of coffee would be pretty boring if all you were doing was tossing your stats back and forth. Unwinding at the bar would be pretty pointless if all you and your friends did was compare DayRunners. Getting a child to sleep at night usually involved more than explaining the benefits of a good night's sleep. Fortunately, we have this great thing called "life" that requires more than just cutting to the chase and gives us plenty of storytelling practice every day.

Tim_11_I

I am posting this early since I have to get the book back to Brian.
I had to borrow The Story Factor in order to read the last chapter. (The edition that I have only has 10 chapters.) Thanks Brian!
In chapter 11 Simmons kind of pulls back the curtain and reveals what she has learned since the original book was published. She has learned how the book has been received through her lectures and presentations. She also lets the reader know they’ve been had. You can’t categorize all stories into just 6 types.
But the more important lesson I learned was that you can’t begin with the results you are looking for and then craft a story. You need to work backwards. Find a story you want to tell and then craft the lesson out of it. It was interesting that Simmons says if you can’t find a story that suits your purpose, maybe your desired outcome needs to be changed. It might be time to re-examin the purpose.
I also noticed that the language seemed to change in this last chapter. She is no longer writing in conversational style or almost colloquial terms, but instead takes a more analytical tone to her words. It’s as if she suddenly turned academic and after putting out the book she needs to prove that she is the expert.
The best illustration of this is a sentence I had to read about three times to understand, “Practice trusting retrospective coherence curbs the urge to cling to limiting recipes of false clarity.”
It may be the author is talking in the tongues of the storytelling religion. But I found it to be out of character related to the rest of the book.
I also think she is trying to justify her writing by trying to tie it all together. I don’t think it necessarily works, but I see what she is trying to do.
I guess the best validation though is that our program is included in the reference section in the back of the book. I wonder if any student would admit they learned of our program from reading this?

Fast Company Expert Blog

Want to create change? Tell a Story

A recent blog post by Chip Conley from FastCompany.com for any of you that are interested.

Han_10 I

What are our stories from? Usually they come from what we see and what we hard. The things we see and heard just are around our lives. Therefore the stories are the reflection of our lives.
I like sharing experiences with people because I can get what I can’t gain from my experiences. The stories people tell show their personalities and thoughts. I think this is the good way to know people.
Some traditional Taiwanese families still think women don’t have to study a lot. They think they end up to merry some one and their husbands can support them. Therefore, some of my girlfriends just want to be housewives after they merry. However since I was young, my mom has kept telling me that women should be independent instead of relying on their husbands. This idea has kept staying in my mind, so it is why I decided to go to abroad to learn more. Therefore, I do think sometime one word or one sentence can change our lives or our thoughts.

Erik_10_Q

When Simmons talks about Hitler, I think she somewhat misses the point with the quality of his storytelling. For all we know, a lot of Hitleer's speeches, manifestos, etc. could have been written by ghost writers. Historians agree that a vast majority of Hitler's power lied in his charisma... it was the charisma with which he TOLD the stories that made him so powerful... again, who's to say who wrote all his material?

With that said, how important do you think the WAY IN WHICH a story is told is compared to the story itself? How important is charisma in the storytelling process? Is it more important than the story itself?

Luke_10_I

Simmons says that we can't fight human nature. We can't help but pay more attention to the negative stories. We are gripped by stories of fear - Negative reinforcement.

Simmons says the stories we choose to tell have a dramatic impact on our environment. I agree. The type of stories we tell, iterate how we feel on the inside. I don't believe that we can change what's on the inside by simply changing the stories we tell. But by monitoring the type of stories we tell and then reflecting on why we are telling those stories we can then change the inside. That will then change the self imposed climate we function in.

Group Recycling update

We went today and filmed. It was painless. Now we need to edit the footage and start the animation sequence.

Iris_chapter10

Ok....as the German in the class I was kind of struggling with it...but I feel I have to "add my mustard to it" (German saying)

I am not sure if Hitler was that brilliant storyteller: I didn't read "Mein Kampf" (illegal in Germany!) but I heard from a philology professor that the language he used was pretty crappy (grammatical structure etc). The point is that Hitler had a huge propaganda apparatus behind him.
Joseph Goebbels was the propaganda minister and a very skillful demagoge. Hitler was the "Hero" (or main character) of the story a particular party/group of people created. The Nazis tried to use the latest scientific findings to work out their strategy and the German culture of obedience provided a fertile soil.
Germany's additional problem were/are "The silent masses"(and/or CYU-mentality)...the ultra national socialists were actually a minority...a very loud one, I have to admit! To the followers the propaganda spawned hatred (towards everything Non-Germanic) and pride (in a totally made-up heritage) , to the rest it spawned tremendous paralyzing fear (of being punished for "wrong-doing") and some just did not care unless it affected them.

Martin_10_I

Alright, this is really just an aside, but Simmons mentions how the blame culture will exist until our brains evolve. I was just reading an interview with the co-author of a book on evolutionary psychology. This part really fits:

DC: Evolutionary psychology portrays us as having impulses that took form long ago, in a very pre-modern context (say, 10,000 years ago), and now these impulses are sometimes rather ill-adapted to our contemporary world. For example, in a food-scarce environment, we became programmed to eat whenever we can; now, with food abounding in many parts of the world, this impulse creates the conditions for an obesity epidemic. Given that our world will likely continue changing at a rapid pace, are we doomed to have our impulses constantly playing catch up with our environment, and does that potentially doom us as a species?

SK: In fact, we’re not playing catch up; we’re stuck. For any evolutionary change to take place, the environment has to remain more or less constant for many generations, so that evolution can select the traits that are adaptive and eliminate those that are not. When the environment undergoes rapid change within the space of a generation or two, as it has been for the last couple of millennia, if not more, then evolution can’t happen because nature can’t determine which traits to select and which to eliminate. So they remain at a standstill. Our brain (and the rest of our body) are essentially frozen in time — stuck in the Stone Age.

One example of this is that when we watch a scary movie, we get scared, and when we watch porn we get turned on. We cry when someone dies in a movie. Our brain cannot tell the difference between what’s simulated and what’s real, because this distinction didn’t exist in the Stone Age.

Brian_10_I

I'm going to be completely honest. I suck at telling stories because my memory is freaking shot. I can't remember shit and it drives me nuts. I have all sort of stories but none of them work unless I'm with the guys at a bar talking about guy stuff. My day to day activities are completely uninteresting. I always revel in chad's ability to be in a strange situation and always have a story to tell. I wish I could do that...and I'm pissed I can't. So it's just a crappy downward spiral.

I'm pissed and littered with self-doubt because of everything this lady says. I wish I could tell stories better but I can't because I can't remember them. She says to 'jot' ideas down...well that's great...that'd mean I'd always need a notebook, a pencil and perhaps an audio recorder. When I have that flash it only last a few moments before its gone, often before I can even write the idea down.

I could pay complete attention to everyone's story today and within 30 minutes you could ask me to relate them and I couldn't...at all.

So damnit, give me an F in storytelling.

Martin_10_I

Annette's big argument is lost on me. She is trying to convince us that storytelling is the greatest, most powerful tool you can ever have. I just don't really buy it. At least not the way she frames it.

Sure, I guess I sometimes tell stories, in a way, in order to try and influence people. But it's so much less conscious than what she is teaching. It's just the way we are taught to communicate with each other. Of course we all tell stories. Otherwise what would we talk about?

Maybe it's because there wasn't a lot of storytelling in my family. My family wasn't like that one woman's family where she learned about every ancestor back through slavery times. I have no idea what my ancestors were like. When stories were told, I probably just turned my head and "ugh"ed with boredom.

She uses Hitler as the obvious example of the power of storytelling, but I think that Hitler had some qualities that cannot be taught in a book. He just happened to be a very influential person. Stories worked for him in a way that they probably couldn't work for any of us.

I think that Annette is in love with storytelling and that's fine. She should be. That's what she does. The problem is that her reality of storytelling does not fit in with any reality that I've ever experienced.

Iris_chapter 10: Heartland Education Seminar

Me and Han went to the Monday Session of the Heartland Education Seminar (Liz was there, too) and I was quite (EXTREMELY) impressed by the keynote speakers.
....Why I am telling this?...Well it just made me think how the negative and positive things in and about a story can enforce the message you pull out of it!

Bobby Bailey, Jason Russell and Laren Poole are three young filmmakers who traveled to Africa in 2004 and discovered the children of Northern Uganda being abducted from their homes and forced to fight as child soldiers in the country’s battles. Every night the children commute from their homes to gather together in a place they feel is "safe". The filmmakers decided to record/film their experiences to create a cultural wake-up call. Their Film is called "Invisible Children - Rough Cut" (because it is a project still progressing) They received the highest possible award of Heartland.

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php

The negative part of the story is the situation in Uganda, the positive part is how we (All!) are able to change the situation. In course of the last three years the non-profit organization founded by the trio has raised 12Mio $ (most donations under 20$!) and the different events and projects (e.g. national commute night in US 2006, school for school) caused so much involvement that the peace talks in Uganda are running and at the moment the night commuting of the children has decreased dramatically! Now the filmmakers are focusing on the displacement camps still existing in Uganda. The creativity of the guys was overwhelming!!! They pulled all the projects with almost no seed money and are able to spark young people to take initiative and get involved in the projects contributing whatever their strength may be.

What struck me was that the film started out as a documentation of unimaginable atrocities and devastating life circumstances will turn into "an anthem for this generation" (according to filmmakers), because the filmmakers say that this young generation has the power to change the world ("Go Millennials"!!!!!!!!). They clearly state that Uganda is just a starting point and involvement can be everywhere -even locally in US communities!

I like their approach of the "rough cut" ...history always has preceding and descending events! Just because one problem seems to be "solved" doesn't mean that the work is over....(and I caught myself feeling too comfortable when hearing that the commuting ended!!!)

Brandon_10_I

“One of the most important culture shifts to observe in an organization is a shift away from an abusive organizational story of “giving 110 percent” to a story that better balances family and work.”

Then Simmons tells us a story of how a man missed a company to watch his daughter play soccer.

It’s a heart-warming story.

But what if everybody is “missing meetings” so that they can “watch their daughter play soccer”?

Telling heart-warming stories every time errors are made in the company will make a shift toward family-based stories within the company.

But a heart-warming story as an excuse to miss important company meetings doesn’t pay the bills.

If it is considered acceptable by one member of the organization, others will follow suit. Pretty soon, 2/3 of your project group is missing meetings simply because they have a nice little story of why they missed.

A balance definitely has to be found in order to balance family and work. However, a heart-warming story should not be deemed an excuse to miss important company meetings.

Tell your heart-warming stories on your lunch break.

Matt_10_I

The part that caught my attention (as well as many who read this chapter I'm sure) in this chapter was the part that Simmons talks about Hitler. It kind of took me off-guard. I didn't really expect for Hitler to be addressed in this book. However, it does make a lot of sense. He obviously would've had to been a gifted storyteller to convince an entire country to be okay with what he did. Simmons got her hands dirty in this chapter, and it really proved her point.

Sarah_10_I

I guess my mind was wandering this morning when I read the following passage, “His story and his ability to convince others of his story was a primary tool of Hitler’s influence. Even when he blatantly distorted facts, the emotional content of his message mesmerized his listeners. It is frightening example of how story can trump facts.”

I realize this was about Hitler, and not really related to my idea, but I got there somehow… Anyway: So I was thinking about the controversy of books vs. movies and which gives a more powerful story. (See it’s KIND OF related) Personally, I’ve always been on the side of read the book first, then see the movie. I think that if you see the movie first, or don’t even read the book at all, you are cheating yourself. If you don’t have the opportunity to imagine the story in your own mind, you are missing out on so much. Take for example, the Harry Potter phenomenon. I love the books. I think they’re an amazing piece of literature for children, and their imaginations can go wild. I think it’s a shame when some children (and adults) watch the movies first, then consider themselves Harry Potter fans. I’ve seen the movies, and they are very similar to the books. Well, the first three or four are. However, when I see the movies, there are so many things that surprise me because that’s not how I pictured them. The further along the movies get, the further they stray from the books. This is understandable, because the books are so long.

I grew up loving to read. Before I could read, my parents read to me every night. I feel bad for people who did not grow up with this love of reading. I feel that they’ve almost been “cheated” somehow, and they’ve missed out on an opportunity to use their imagination.

Joshua_10_1

The line between a storyteller and a miscreant is a thin one. (233)

Amen. More often than not the unsavory characters you meet will be the most fun to talk to. Take for example my great uncles, two of the most unsavory characters I know and also two of the best storytellers I have personally met. They probably don't even consider themselves storytellers, but they're the type that can sit down to talk to each other and draw a crowd. As far as mammoth cat fish, the SeaBees, plane crashes, and bowling are concerned they've got you covered.

I have also found that Simmons' rule holds true while traveling. For example, I met Elmer in Charleston, South Carolina (some of you may remember my stubbed toe/liquor store hunt story). He was sitting outside a convenient store and invited myself and some friends to, "Sit awhile and listen to my story." He commenced to tell his life story. Both the ups and the downs, the good times and the bad. He told us how he had lost the use of his legs and how we had found salvation in the Lord, Jesus Christ... who by the way wanted us to by him a King Cobra 40oz. Nary a better story has been told.

On a slightly unrelated note I have also found that this rule holds true for seafood restaurants. The worse it looks, the better the seafood is on the inside. Health Services might not agree with me, but I judge on taste. Anyway, you should take to heart both Simmons and my advice. The next time you see a shady-looking cat siting outside of a shack that claims to be a seafood restaurant, get ready, because you're going to be in heaven! That is is you consider heaven to be enjoying delicious seafood in the company of a delightful spinner of tales.

Kyle_10_I

I really saw the audience of this chapter being the business culture, but there was a point that was a little hidden in this chapter. I thought she could have went further with the Blame Stories. Its not just in the business setting or workplace. The Blame Stories are infused in our culture and media. Fear is a very strong motivator, it is also the cheap car salesman tactic. Just because its easy and it works does not mean you should use it. Advertizers constantly use fear stories/ blame stories to sell their product.
"Your family is in danger."
"You will burn alive."
"Your kids are going to die"
"Someone is stealing from you right now"
"Your going to be poor."
"You are not worthy"
"You have to have _____ to amount to anything"
These are a form of these blame stories that Simmons talks about. I am repulsed by these tactics and avoid those business. I would like to see a study done on the effectiveness of positive advertizing vs. negative scare tactic advertizing.

JohnJ_10_Q

This is going to touch some ethical questioning so disclaimer (I do not feel this way or wish to offend anyone). And I don't know how I ended up talking about this from this chapter but it came to me while reading it... so i guess its relevant.

As the number of digital natives increases and the line between edited news and armature news starts to vanish, are we by example teaching our children to question everything they read or listen to or are we teaching them to become open-sponges and believe everything?

Here's a story for both sides on the topic of religion.

First, my little brother went away to a week long church camp. It wasn't though our church's demomonation but he did go with a few kids from our church. After he came back, he kept telling mom and dad how we was seeing demons on our house. Needless to say we were shocked and worried. After some digging, the church camp daily did an hour long "celebration" in which they stood and sang songs while the kids one at a time announced that they saw the holy spirit and were touched by it. It reminded me of this video called "Jesus Camp".
Though storytelling they were spinning these kids stories and the bible stories to make them become neo-christians. Scary it was but after everything was done he's for the most part back to "normal."

Second, as young adults and the political events of today, I find that more and more people of this age group questioning everything they read or are told with religion being one of them. With this negative storytelling old-traditionalized religions are pushing younger people away and more and more of them are joining community churches or stop participating in religion altogether. Media then spins these facts and calls America stupid or devalued or on its way to its demise. (this is starting to sound like the fox "news" channel)

Sorry if your lost, I am a bit to, but hey isn't that what class discussion is for? I admit I like to raise these controversial questions, but I do because I want to hear how people feel from both sides.

Final Thought is this anything new? (think the 50's cool dudes, the 60's hippies, the 80's rock groups, the 90's rap groups, the 00's you tubers? )

Jessie_10_I

Back home my family attends a Pentecostal church that is headed up by an old-time Georgian minister. The man is a great storyteller in the way that only Southern gentlemen of a certain age can be. He started out preaching at 14 years-old when he got on a bus with his twin brother and a guitar and travelled around to summer tent meetings and hasn't stopped since. But the fact of the matter is that he's getting older and a couple of years ago he decided that it was high time he started training up another preacher to eventually take his place. He contacted his wife's nephew, a former youth minister in his late forties who had just moved back to Indiana and asked him to come try the job out.

The first time I went home while the man was preaching I came out of the service feeling uneasy. It's not like I've never felt out of place in a Pentecostal church. I'm the lone Catholic holdout in a family of Holy Rollers, it kind of goes with the territory. But I felt especially uneasy this particular day and I didn't know why. This uneasiness persisted every time I went home and this man preached and this past spring it finally hit me. He has some of the most negative sermons I have ever heard in my life. They aren't sermons that are designed to make the audience feel guilty or fearful for their own salvation. You spend enough time in parochial schools and you get used to that sort of thing. No, he gives sermons preaching against other religions and other people. He likes to get going and flash around pictures he's recieved in e-mail forwards (sort of like these) and tell everyone how bad the rest of the world is. That isn't what people want to hear on a Sunday morning. Our senior pastor tells these great stories, some from the Bible and some not, that demonstrate the principles that are supposed to help us grow and be better people. Those are the kinds of stories people want to hear when sitting in a country church on a Sunday morning staring out at the cornfields.

Telling stories that hold that much negativity can only get a storyteller so far. As negative as the world can be sometimes I refuse to believe that the majority of people want to feel angry and upset. You tell people stories that make them feel good and show them how to keep feeling good and they will listen to whatever you have to say. Fire and brimstone should only be used when it is really needed to drive a point home and even then you have to be careful with it.

Sarah_10_I

The example given in the chapter about the "Stewart Woman" really made me think of my own experiences of hearing family stories. My parents never said anything like "You're a Jones" or "You come from the Turners (my mom's family)," and I think saying things like this sounds kind of family sitcom-ish. But their stories always let me know just what kind of people I come from, and whether it was intentional or not, the stories helped me decide the type of person I wanted to become based on those from which I've descended. I know from these stories that my family is full of simple, hardworking people who have tried to live honest, good lives. We come from the extremely rural parts of Kentucky and Virginia where, to some even today, indoor plumbing is an unnecessary luxury. I even remember visiting some family as a child and refusing to use an outhouse. I personally think the rural, outdoorsy life sucks a lot, but the stories of my family have taught me that life isn't easy and it's not always luxurious. It is what it is and we take it at face value. I'm glad my parents have told me about my family and where we come from. It's helped me put the world around me into a better perspective.


P.S. I would just like to say how much I love the automatic save feature because one of my cats thought he would crawl into the tiny space behind my desk and flick off the power strip in the middle of my post. He's not in nearly as much trouble as he would have been if I'd lost the whole post rather than just one sentence.

Barbaric Yawp

Liz 10:Q I loved the story about Studs Terkel in the airport. Why? Because I’ve done that. Sounding my barbaric yawp in the midst of silence that needed to be pierced. I can’t stand it so much at times that I burst. If you are ever stuck in an elevator on my way up or down be prepared for an actual comment or conversation or abstract act. Maybe it’s why I wore a nuns habit outfit to my Christian parochial (very non Catholic) high school reunion. What a blast that was yet, loads of people didn’t get the humor. Guess that’s why I didn’t get invited back. But it’s okay. It was worth it to jog a few people to think outside their comfort zones. Isn't that what Simmons is encouraging?

Chad_10_Q

This weekend I read an exploration of Irish storytelling done around the year 1975. The author focused on two types of tellers: local, landed people who have learned their national history; and travelers, or what we would call gypsies (Think Brad Pitt's character in the movie "Snatch.")

In Chapter 10 Simmons tells us the "line between a storyteller and a miscreant is a thin one."

By focusing on "respectable" types and homeless types, the author of my book must have either ignored the line or thought little of it. He treated everyone equally.

In my trip to Ireland the tellers I met consisted of several professionals, a few amateurs and one drunk. Since my return I've been trying to figure out why, only after talking to the latter individual, I felt like I got the most authentic experience.

I'd welcome any thoughts.

Brian_10_I

At first I was a little apprehensive of this chapter. The first thing she writes after the "mountain" story is:
"Living life as a storyteller is fascinating. Once you realize you can move mountains..."

But I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did.

I really liked parts of this chapter. The "Blame Cultures" section is fabulous. Perhaps I think so just because it fits in nicely with my personal theory of the universe. She writes:

"The stories you chose to tell have a dramatic impact on the environment you create for yourself. Fear stories are easier to spread but usualy have long-term negative consequences. Since fear is easier to activate than hope, people see a fear story work first, and stick with it. For instance, some churches gain converts with fear stories ('Repent or you are going to hell') rather than hope stories ('forgiveness and compassion connect you to God'). A fear story may work faster but fear stories create 'move away from' patterns that prevent the connections that build tolerance, compassion, and long-term growth...."

Fear is easy, hope isn't. This isn't the first time she has said this, but I think she wraps it up nicely here. Journalists could use this concept when giving us stories. (If I may go back to earlier discussions about Michael Moore, I really liked where I THOUGHT he was going with "Bowling for Columbine," the culture of fear spread by the media, but then he went eighteen different ways and didn't give us any conclusion.)

My personal creed is: don't go for the low-hanging fruit. It certainly applies here to journalists. Don't get me started on the recent wave of "comedy" films lately.

Chad_10_I

I have to give Simmons credit for invoking Hitler in Chapter 10. So far we have been mostly softballed with stories about faceless characters, like the proverbial stonecutter at the beginning of this chapter.

By seriously studying a historical figure, Simmons shows us she too is serious, and not afraid to consider a topic that makes people bristle.

If I am to believe what I read here, Hitler was a masterful storyteller. He would have to have been, to incite a country to such violence.

If nothing else, he is a figure from our age who can remind us how story has, in ancient times, moved empires. Think of Caesar, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, for example.